CROSS-BORDER SOCIAL DIALOGUE AND AGREEMENTS: An ...

Introduction
Konstantinos Papadakis 1
n 2004, the World Commission on the Social Dimension of
IGlobalization identified some 65,000 multinational enterprises
(MNEs) with around 850,000 foreign affiliates as the key actors driving
increasing flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) to developing countries
(WCSDG, 2004, p. 33, para. 159). The World Commission noted
that, in the absence of balanced multilateral rules to govern the key element
of FDI, there is growing concern that incentive competition
between developing countries is inducing these countries to go too far in
lowering regulations, taxes, environmental protection and labour standards
(WCSDG, 2004, p. 34, para. 162 and p. 86, para. 389).
Parallel to this trend, globalization has generated a mismatch
between the scope of the activities of global actors (such as MNEs), which
is increasingly transnational, and the scope of action of social actors (such
as trade unions, social movements, nongovernmental organizations and
consumers’ organizations), which remains largely embedded at national
level. This mismatch reflects a wider systemic disequilibrium in terms of
available tools of action and power, between, on the one hand, for-profit
global actors like MNEs, and on the other, not-for-profit actors in the
social field, who work for an equitable distribution of the benefits of
globalization.
In response to this mismatch and in the absence of a multilateral
framework, numerous private initiatives have aimed at filling in this
lacuna through self-regulation. Thus, MNEs increasingly put in place
1
International Institute for Labour Studies, International Labour Organization (ILO).
1